In orthopedic surgery it is often necessary to reattach cartilage and ligaments to skeletal bones with surgical pins, screws or anchors. For example, metallic suture anchors are currently used to facilitate cartilage or ligament reattachment. In these procedures a hole is drilled into the skeletal bone. A suture anchor, attached to a suture, is then inserted into the hole in a manner that allows the anchor to engage the sides of the hole and be held in place. The suture is then used to secure the torn cartilage or ligament to the bone. However, sometimes during or after the healing process these anchors fail to remain in place and must be removed to avoid harm to the patient.
Recently, absorbable suture anchors have been proposed as a replacement for metallic suture anchors. The perceived advantage of an absorbable anchor over the metallic anchor is that after the healing process for the cartilage or ligament is complete the anchor will be absorbed by the patient's body and disappear. However, most bioabsorbable materials are not strong enough to dig into bone tissue. Therefore, bioabsorbable bone anchors tend to have less resistance to being pulled out of the location in which it is secured.
Thus, it would be a significant contribution to the art to provide a method to enhance the secure placement of implantable surgical devices in patients. Additionally, it would be advantageous if a method could be developed to enhance the resistance to removal of bioabsorbable surgical implantable devices.